1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates generally to an ink-jet recording apparatus having a recording head configured to eject droplets of an ink from its nozzles onto a recording medium for forming an image on the recording medium, and more particularly, to such an ink-jet recording apparatus which is provided with a cap for covering the nozzles of the recording head and wherein the cap is movable between a first position at the cap covers the nozzles and a second position at which the cap is spaced apart from the nozzles.
2. Description of Related Art
There is known an ink-jet recording apparatus having a recording head configured to eject droplets of an ink for forming an image on a recording medium, on the basis of input signals. The ink-jet recording apparatus has a carriage on which the recording head is mounted and which is disposed in opposition to the recording medium and moved in a horizontal direction. During the movement of the carriage, the ink droplets are ejected from selected ones of nozzles of the recording head, to form the desired image on the recording medium.
For ejecting the ink droplets accurately at target spots on the recording medium, the spots at which the ink droplets are deposited must be defined with respect to a predetermined reference point. To this end, the ink-jet recording apparatus is arranged to detect a point of origin of the carriage carrying the recording head, upon power application to the apparatus.
The ink-jet recording apparatus may be of a serial type wherein upon initialization of the apparatus, the carriage held stationary at a certain position after each recording operation is moved toward a stopper for abutment of the carriage onto the stopper, and a position at which the carriage abuts on the stopper is determined as the point of origin of the carriage. Thus, an operation to set the point of origin of the carriage is performed.
Most of an ink-jet recording apparatus have a cap vertically movable between a first position at which the cap covers the nozzles and a second position at which the cap is spaced apart from the nozzles. The ink-jet recording apparatus has a pump which is operated to generate a suction pressure within the cap covering the nozzles, so that air bubbles and foreign matters are removed from the nozzles.
One type of a mechanism used to vertically move the cap utilizes a movement of the carriage. In the mechanism of this type, a cap holder which holds the cap has an abutment portion onto which the carriage moving in the horizontal direction is abuttable. The cap holder is horizontally moved as a result of a movement of its abutment portion by the carriage. The cap holder is supported by a support portion having a slant surface, so that the horizontal movement of the cap holder on the slant surface causes an upward movement of the cap holder, and a consequent upward movement of the cap held by the cap holder, to the position at which the cap covers the nozzles of the recording head mounted on the carriage.